


Five Times Stretch felt like Shit and One Time he didn't

by Rehlia



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bodily Functions, Comedy, Cravings, Cultural Differences, Ecto-Penis (Undertale), Ectobelly, Ectobiology, Five Times Format, Fluff, Gift Fic, Giving Birth, M/M, Magical Pregnancy, Mild Smut, Morning Sickness, Mpreg, Oneshot, Pregnancy, Secret Santa, Unplanned Pregnancy, Vomiting, fell verse bullshit, skelepreg, weird food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 07:21:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehlia/pseuds/Rehlia
Summary: Stretch and Slim didn't plan this pregnancy, but that doesn't mean they won't deal with it like champs anyway. Well, mostly.He's so doomed...





	Five Times Stretch felt like Shit and One Time he didn't

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Foxytales](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foxytales/gifts).



> My Summer Secret Santa present for Foxytales! Hope you like it, I tried to include as many of your stated preferences as possible :D
> 
> [My tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

_One_

“Are you okay?”

Slim’s voice was soft, but firm. 

“I'm fine.”

Stretch’s voice was… not. 

“You look like shit,” Slim commented, his brow bones rising a little. 

“That's just my face,” Stretch quipped, but it lacked the casual sarcasm he could usually pack into remarks like that, and it was clear that Slim noticed. 

“Tell me what's wrong.”

Slim was a skeleton of two moods; he could either be timid, quiet and anxious, without much of a will to push an issue… or he could have the steely, take-no-shit-and-dish-it-out attitude that let him survive the kill or be kill world he originally came from. Stretch felt bad for it, but he kind of wished Slim would be the former now, instead of the latter. It would've made things easier. 

He could already feel his emotions rising, a rush of magic accompanying it as tears began to sting at the corners of his sockets. 

That did exactly nothing to stem the overflow of concern that was rapidly spreading on Slim’s expression. 

“Stretch?”

“I said I'm _fine_!” he snapped, hating the wet waver that snuck into his voice. 

The sudden rush of magic left him with a pressing need to attend to, so he took the opportunity to escape to the bathroom, locking himself in. He barely had time to wrestle his pants down and sit onto the toilet before the rush came. Good thing his brother had insisted on installing a functioning one, for when they had human guests over. Mostly that was just Chara. And sometimes the other Chara, and the Frisk's, when their respective caregivers came over and felt safe enough to take them along. 

All these thoughts were barely enough of a distraction for what was going on with him.

He hated this so much. 

Skeletons didn't pee. _Monsters_ didn't pee, and yet here he was. Nobody had told him that a monster body could look for any possibility to get rid of excess magic under… certain circumstances. Like when the magic was agitated and fluctuating because of certain pressures on it. Getting rid of so much also meant he had a lot more than usual to replenish, and that left him stuck in an endless cycle of eating and shedding, eating and shedding… the upheaval left him completely exhausted most of the time. 

No wonder Slim said he looked like shit. 

Stars. 

He'd have to drain a couple of bottles of honey for an easy kick of energy, maybe that would get his reserves up a bit again - 

At the thought of his all time favourite thing to consume, he was suddenly overcome by an insurmountable amount of utter revulsion, so overpowering that he barely had time to lean sideways to the sink that was mounted right next to the toilet. Then more magic forced its way out of him, sour-sweet and stale. It was repulsive and it hurt the invisible lines where power was conducted along his bones. More tears gathered in his eye sockets, dripping down his face and onto the mess in the sink. 

“Stretch?!” he heard Slim call from the outside, knocking at the door. 

He sounded worried and scared. 

Stretch could understand that, because that was exactly how he felt too. 

Perhaps what he felt earlier hadn't actually been hatred. 

Perhaps it had been fear.

_Two_

They were gathered in the living room.

Stretch, Slim, Blue, and Razz, because Stretch figured if he was going to do this he might as well get it over with all at once, instead of forcing himself through the ordeal three times on separate occasions. With the way his emotional state was flinging him around on a carnival roller coaster without working safety belts right now, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to deal with the anxiety of three separate talks. 

“Did you plan on beginning any time soon, or should I leave and start an elaborate dinner in the hopes you'll maybe croak out the first syllable by the time I'm back in three hours?” Razz asked, his whole body a monument to impatience and aggravation as he leaned against one of the living room walls. The one furthest away from the rest of them, actually. 

“Be nice!” Blue told him, uncharacteristically short in tone before he turned back towards Stretch with the same expression of gentle worry he had been wearing in front of him over the past couple of weeks. “Papy…?”

Slim said nothing. He had adopted a policy of silently stalking Stretch ever since the bathroom incident five days ago, his eye lights sharp and small with worry, boring into Stretch’s back and leaving it crawling with guilt. 

“Uh… yeah,” he choked out, clearing his throat when the words came out thick and almost garbled. This shouldn't be so hard, he told himself. He only had to say one single sentence. He was relaxed, chill. He didn't do nervous. 

“Mpregnt. I mean. P… pregnant. I am. Pregnant.”

Smooth. 

The stuttered words were followed by a silence that was more than just deafening. It seemed to creep in between his joints, settle into the furniture, erect walls between himself and the others, who were all staring at him with their sockets wide and their jaws open. 

“PAPY!!!” Blue was the first to recover with a forceful and excited yell. His eye lights were already widening and glittering while his smile threatened to split his skull into two. “Oh wow!!! Are you sure?!”

“Yeah… I had a lot of the symptoms so I went to a healer yesterday and… yeah. There's a little lump growing in my soul,” he confirmed, swallowing hard. A tiny little lump that, very soon, would become its own little soul and descend into the cavity above his pelvis, where it would be cradled and cushioned by his magic, shaped into an ectoplasmic belly. It was weird to think about. 

“Congratulations!!” Blue seemed beside himself with joy, immediately hugging Stretch sideways and pulling him closer on the couch. “Oh brother! A little babybones! Oh! And congratulations to you too, Slim!”

Blue let go of Stretch and turned towards Slim, his expression still one of absolute glee, only to falter when he finally caught sight of Slim. Stretch could feel his own soul metaphorically drop to his feet, his bones suddenly cold as if his marrow had been replaced with ice. 

Slim was wearing a frown, staring at Stretch with an expression that he was unable to properly categorise. A quick glance at Razz showed that he was wearing the same expression, both fell monsters stiff and impossible to read. 

Slowly, ever so slowly, Razz’ eye lights slid over to Slim, who blanched visibly under the attention. 

“ _Mutt_!” Razz growled, and then he was next to his brother in a flash. 

Blue and Stretch were both standing up to get between them, shocked at the sudden display of aggression and the return of the degrading name, both of which had slowly faded out as the fell monsters got used to the surface. 

But to their surprise, Slim held up his hands, stopping them in their tracks. 

“Blue, stay with Stretch,” Razz ordered, his voice assuming the strict tone he always used when he acted as the captain of his royal guard unit. “Take care of him and don't let him out of your sight. My brother and I need to talk.”

With that said, Razz pulled Slim outside, leaving the premises to have privacy. 

Blue and Stretch were left where they stood, half crouched after having just gotten up from the couch, still not understanding what just happened. 

“Papy…” Blue began carefully. 

Stretch relaxed. It was fine, this was all fine, so his partner and his partner's brother hadn't reacted as positively as he'd hoped. It was okay. Sometimes, things just were like that. 

Stretch was a mature monster, Stretch was relaxed, Stretch would be able to deal with it…

Stretch was already weeping helplessly into his brother's shoulder.

_Three_

They had eaten.

Stretch and Blue had eaten, to be precise, since Razz and Slim hadn't returned yet. It had been several hours by now. Blue had stuck to the order Razz had given him, explaining that from the way Razz had reacted, it was clearly important to him. Besides, Blue wanted to be there for his brother too right now. 

Stretch did appreciate the gesture, but he also felt drained and was very ready for the day to be over. He wanted to crawl back into the room he shared with Slim and be miserable in private. 

Before he could launch another attempt to convince his brother to let him go though, the front door opened and Razz and Slim came back inside, looking far calmer and steadier than when they had left. 

Razz approached him first, inclining his head towards Stretch, before offering him a single word. 

“Congratulations.”

It did sound genuine, in spite of the short nature of the comment. 

Then he stepped over to Blue, waiting. 

Slim stepped up, standing tall and straight, his usual slouch noticeably absent. He looked at where Stretch was sitting at the table and took the whole of him in. His face was set and he looked… strong, somehow. A fell verse mask? But no, there was a difference, a certain softness to his features that would never be there if this was his fell verse act. 

“Can we talk?” Slim asked quietly, and in spite of his display of steadiness and calm strength he sounded as if he expected to be rebuffed, as if he was a repentant sinner prostrating himself for mercy. 

“Sure.” 

Stretch wasn't sure what to think when he followed Slim into their room, barely hearing Razz and Blue starting to talk. Would Slim try to convince him to get rid of the developing baby? Or would he try to convince him to keep it? And had Razz influenced this decision in any way?

Stretch felt startled as he noticed that he hadn't really given any thought to what he wanted for himself yet - did _he_ want this kid? He had been so preoccupied with the anxiety if having to tell the others, because he had never questioned whether he should, because he had immediately been convinced that he needed to tell them before making any decision, that he felt as if the floor had been ripped out from underneath his feet now that it was time to decide what would happen next. 

Did he want this child?

Was he even ready for that?

Could he even be a good parent?

He was lazy to a fault, had a whole host of bad habits, could be unhealthily self-deprecating, and after he and Blue had to fend for themselves in their childhoods…

That last thought made him pause. 

It would have been nice, to have a proper home. And the idea of giving such a proper home to a kid of his own… that unexpectedly touched a part of his soul. Something soft and protective. 

He didn't have the time to linger on it. 

Slim had closed the door and turned to him. 

“I want to apologise. I'm sorry,” he said without preamble. “I know that nothing I can say or do could ever make up for what I did. I will carry this guilt until I dust. I won't ask you to forgive me, but… I do want you to know. I'm sorry.”

“Well…” Stretch felt relieved now that Slim had come to him apologised, but the possibility of Razz having influenced his brother still weighed heavily on his mind now that he thought about it. Razz and Slim’s relationship as brothers had improved dramatically after they had all moved to the surface together, but Razz was still a very forceful person and Slim was not. “I have to admit I didn't expect you to react this way. I hoped for something else.”

“I know,” Slim said, looking down to the floor before squaring up and redirecting his eye lights back to Stretch’s face. “I don't know what to say. I don't know how it's possible that I didn't figure it out right away when you showed me your symptoms so clearly. I should have known…”

“Wait, what?”

“What?”

“I didn't want you to know,” Stretch pointed out with a frown. “Until today. I thought you were apologising for how you reacted to me telling you.”

“Of course. But that's only a small part of everything I did wrong,” Slim insisted, which didn't make any sense. 

...Or did it?

“...I don't get it,” Stretch said plainly. 

Slim looked surprised for a second, but then understanding dawned on his face and Stretch found his suspicions confirmed. They had often had moments during their relationship where a small but significant difference between their universes tripped them up. It was never the big things that were unexpected; always the small ones. 

This seemed to be one such instance. It was generally better to be upfront about not understanding something, so they could avoid misunderstandings. 

“Of course,” Slim sighed, drawing a hand over his face. His eye lights still never left Stretch’s face, only gaining a renewed intensity. “Stretch, it's… do you have any idea how _rare_ children are where we come from? How precious and how endangered? The queen might have written into law that children don't fall under the kill or be killed rule, but they're vulnerable. Easy pickings. There're enough monsters who won't care about the law if they know they can get away with it, and older children becoming aware of their own weakness enough to try and up their level before they become legal to kill. If two monsters end up procreating in spite of that, there needs to be protection. _I_ need to protect you. You're mine. My mate. I should've known what was up. I should've recognised the symptoms and never let you out of my sight, should've taken care of you ‘n made sure you're well and fed and _safe_...”

The tirade slowly petered out in an embarrassed mumble. 

Stretch had no idea what to say to that. He knew that protecting others was a huge thing in the fell verses - risking your own safety for the sake of someone else wasn't something that was undertaken lightly. But even then he wouldn't have guessed the intensity with which they regarded the protection of their mate and children. 

“Slim, you know I'm not mad at you for that, right?” Stretch tried. “I was trying to keep it a secret from you because I didn't know how to feel about it or how you'd react. I wouldn't blame you for not noticing when that's what I wanted.”

“...How do you feel about it?” Slim asked him cautiously. 

“Uh… dunno. I'm not sure I'd be a good parent… but I'd kinda like to try?”

To say Slim looked happy at that admission would have been the understatement of the century. 

“May I touch you?” he asked. 

“Uhm. Sure.”

Slim reached out and placed a careful hand on Stretch’s sternum, right over the place where his soul was. Slim looked awed, almost reverent as his thumb gently caressed the bone through the fabric of Stretch’s hoodie. Then, without further preamble, Slim pulled Stretch into a tight hug, one hand on his neck and the other on his hip, both pulling him closer until they were tightly pressed together. 

“Mine,” Slim growled into Stretch’s mouth before he kissed him deeply. “You're mine. You carry my child… I love you…”

Slim kept nuzzling into the crook of Stretch’s neck, against his face, kept touching him all over his body. 

Stretch felt he should probably get used to some level of possessiveness, but he couldn't say that he minded.

_Four_

“I hate pears so much,” Stretch sobbed. “Why would you do this to me? I don't deserve this.”

“B-but you asked for them,” Slim insisted, sounding frantic, his arms full of the green fruit. “You said you'd dust of you didn't get any soon!”

“If you think I'm stupid just say so already!!!” Stretch wept, ignoring Slim’s look of befuddled hurt, folding forwards to cry into his hands. He didn't want to see Slim’s face anymore. He didn't want to see anything. He was so tired and hungry and upset and he really, really wanted some… 

“Asparagus,” he blurted out, rising from the safe nest of his hands again at his revelation. “I need asparagus.”

“It's winter,” Slim pointed out carefully. 

“Asparagus on a twinkie,” Stretch continued, feeling oddly lightheaded and excited at the prospect. “Dipped in ranch dressing.”

Slim took Stretch’s hands, after carefully setting aside the pears he had gathered, and squeezed them. 

“Stretch. We tried having me bring you the food you want and it's not working. How about we try having me bring you food I think you need now,” Slim suggested. 

Stretch sobbed once more. Slim was so sweet to him. So understanding and hardworking, trying to provide for him and the babybones growing inside him. The little soul had just recently dropped into the belly made out of ectoflesh that would protect it in the coming months, and the change had triggered an enormous appetite for all sorts of different food in order to sustain the magical effort necessary for it. The rapid shift in magic had also brought back the mood swings with a vengeance, which had gotten better for a short while between confessing his pregnancy and now. Thankfully, the nausea at least at subsided. 

“Okay,” Stretch sniffed. “I love you. ‘m sorry for being silly.”

“You're not,” Slim assured him with a loving smile. “You're just pregnant. Love you too, honey.” 

The intimate nickname made Stretch flush. He used to hate being called after his favourite condiment, but with Slim it was different. He made it sound special. 

Slim led Stretch down into the living room to leave him with Blue and Razz before he went out. Slim kept insisting that Stretch should never be alone in his current state - he knew that they were safe, but he couldn't shake the instincts his fell verse had instilled in him. Unless Stretch was in company deemed strong enough to protect him, Slim would be too anxious to leave. 

Razz was Slim’s favourite bodyguard by far, even though he also appreciated Blue for the task. It was just that Razz and Slim had already looked out for each other in their underground, plus Razz understood better where Slim was coming from. It had turned out that when Razz pulled Slim out on the day when Stretch confessed his pregnancy, it hadn't been quite so dramatic as it looked - Razz had merely shaken Slim out of his apathy, chewed him out for not noticing the pregnancy, congratulated him, and then formulated a thorough battle plan based on fell verse pregnancy wisdom to ensure Stretch’s safety and comfort in case he decided to keep the baby. In that order.

Over the past few weeks, much of that plan had been implemented, and the constant bodyguarding was a part of that. 

“Do you need anything?” Blue asked sympathetically when Stretch sat down next to him and Razz on the couch. He could obviously see the tear stains on Stretch’s face, but he had cried so often over the course of this pregnancy that this wasn't unusual anymore. 

“No, thanks,” Stretch said, slouching down in his seat. For once, neither Blue nor Razz pestered him about his bad posture. Pregnancy did have some upsides after all. 

“Did you eat the pears?” Razz asked him. 

“Nah. Suddenly hated them,” Stretch explained sullenly. Now that the moment was over he felt ridiculous for his extreme reaction. Those mood swings were a bitch to deal with. 

“Reasonable, pears are terrible,” Razz nodded.

“Maybe we could cook them with apples into sauce,” Blue mused. “It would be a shame to waste them!”

“I presume my brother finally convinced you to let him bring you what you need based on our culture?” Razz asked, ignoring Blue's words. 

“Yeah. ...What do you guys consider good pregnancy food anyway?” Stretch wondered.

“Dust of our enemies,” Razz said, in a manner so calm that it only made the statement more disturbing, “in order to awaken the fighting spirit of the child and prepare it for a life of kill or be killed.”

Silence. 

“Uhm,” Blue began. 

“What the fuck,” Stretch said, getting right to the point. 

“Though I don't think he'll go for that,” Razz shrugged. “Apart from the legalities, he knows how you think about that and will definitely take your opinion into consideration. There are other options too, though less popular.”

“Thank the stars,” Blue mumbled, frowning at Razz’ overly casual attitude. 

“Yeah, that's just sick, dude,” Stretch agreed. 

Razz gave him an alarmed look and, with a movement that had become so fluent and practised over the time since the announcement that it bordered on creepy, produced Stretch’s bucket from beside the couch. 

“I’m not going to throw up!” Stretch protested, perhaps feeling a little insulted. “Just… jeez!” 

Fell verse monsters could be a lot to deal with, sometimes. Even if they were down to fetch you your bucket. 

Thankfully, they all decided to move on from the topic after that and commented on the latest Napstablook show on the TV instead. It passed the time until Slim returned, several paper bags in his hands that smelled oddly alluring to Stretch. 

“What's that?”Stretch asked, perking up slightly. 

“Food,” Slim grinned. 

“It’s not made with the dust of your enemies, right?” Stretch couldn’t help but ask, not quite trusting the vague description in spite of everything. 

“Of course not!” Slim sounded appalled. “That kind of fell verse shit is in the past.”

Stretch breathed a sigh of relief.

“No, this is better,” Slim insisted, and pulled an entire dead bird out of one of the paper bags. A pheasant. Still bleeding. “Tadaa! Real meat, freshly hunted, to give you strength - “

Razz put the bucket underneath Stretch’s face just in time.

_Five_

Stretch stood naked in front of the big bathroom mirror, staring ahead at his reflection.

Time had passed and his belly had grown, from a small, soft bulge to the massive dimension it had now. He felt like he was carrying a whole watermelon inside of him, and he looked the part too. 

Gently, he placed his hand on his stomach.

The ectoplasmic flesh was warm under his phalanges, the opaque amber colour glowing ever so faintly against his bones. He couldn't see the child that was growing inside of him, but he could feel a faint tremble of movement when he touched his belly like this, and sometimes they would kick. 

He loved that. 

His belly felt foreign, strange, was something he hadn't gotten used to in spite of the time it took to grow. But it was fine, as long as he could feel this. As long as he could feel his child being alive inside of him.  
It was still hard to wrap his mind around. That he'd be a parent. That not too long in the future there would be a small, squirming babybones coming out of him. A fragile little new life that would be entirely dependent on him, that he'd have to feed and change and keep alive and happy, that he'd have to protect and guide for years and years to come. 

He felt wary about it, his anxiety spiking as the probable date of birth approached, but there was also undeniably a sense of excitement that accompanied the worry. 

He wanted to hold them safe in his arms. He wanted them to meet Slim, and Blue and Razz, and all of their friends, wanted to see how they'd look at the people in his life and how those he cared for would look at his baby. He wanted to watch them grow up in this community of kind monsters, surrounded by people who loved them. 

He wanted to watch them take a first sip of honey, wanted to watch them bite into a lemon, wanted to see their first steps and hear their first words. He wanted to show them how damn beautiful the world could be, how colourful and bright. The flowers of spring and the rain showers, the verdant green and the heat of summer, fall harvests and fog, the first cold wind and snow of winter. He wanted to show them the stars, and the sky, and the sea, and everything that was good and lovely in the world. 

He wanted to be a good parent. 

That thought made his anxiety spike again though. What if he couldn't be?

How much effort could he reasonably expect himself to put into this? Sure, he was excited now, but at some point that excitement would probably crumble under the everyday strain of crying and bottle feeding and cleaning the babybones if they spit up. 

Who was he even kidding here?

He was lazy. He could barely bring himself to eat properly on his best days, never mind anything more productive. He'd be a shit parent. Why had he agreed to this? Why had he decided to keep the kid? He should've told Slim that he didn't want this. He should've stopped this when he had the chance. His bones were rattling softly under the sudden onslaught of nerves. 

“Stretch?” A soft knock accompanied the quiet question. It was Slim. “Been in there for a while. ‘s late. You okay?”

“Uh… yeah, sorry, I was…” he scrambled for something to cover his body with and came up with a towel, even though the lingering moisture from his shower had already evaporated during the time where he contemplated his situation. “I was thinking.”

“...Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Stretch sighed, suddenly feeling silly with his towel. It wasn't as if Slim didn't see him naked on a regular basis anyway. 

Slim entered the room as quietly as possible, which made Stretch wonder about the time. If Slim was trying not to wake up Razz and Blue, if their brothers had already gone to sleep, then it must indeed have been late. Slim didn't say anything, merely stepped behind Stretch and wrapped his arms around him in a hug. His hands ran slowly over Stretch’s ribs and down to his belly, where they paused as he felt for the flutter of life that Stretch had earlier admired too. 

“What're you thinkin’ about?” Slim mumbled, nuzzling into the crook of Stretch’s neck, dragging his nasal bone carefully over the sensitive vertebrae. 

Stretch wasn't entirely sure how to convey they full brunt of his hopes and fears over this baby to the other. There was so much that was running through his skull, so many different thoughts and emotions. 

“The future,” he eventually settled on, thinking that this was what it all came down to. He looked forwards to it but also didn't know what it would bring. 

“Hmmm.”

For a moment, there was only silence between them in the aftermath of this acknowledging hum. The sounds of the house were all that Stretch could hear apart from their own quiet breaths; the way the wood settled with a low creak every now and then, the drip of water from the shower head to the tub as the last of his shower dried, the wind outside and how it rustled the grass and the trees, the faint sound of voices belonging to monsters or humans walking through the neighborhood in the distance. The hum of the fridge down below and Blue's occasional soft snores. 

“It's scary, isn't it?” Slim asked him. “It's all new. You don't know what to expect.”

“...Yeah,” Stretch admitted. 

“Me neither,” Slim said, “but I still know we'll do fine. ‘Cause I survived my underground and you ‘n me are basically the same person. If we can do that, then we can deal with this too.”

That was a good point actually. It didn't entirely erase the nervous worries that Stretch felt in his soul, but it was enough to make him melt into Slim’s embrace, to tilt his head back and allow the other full access to the sensitive bones of his neck and shoulder. 

Slim took advantage of it by way of licking over the bone while his hands dipped lower on his belly, following the curve down until they reached the pelvis. Stretch was already hard and waiting for him there, the little bit of stimulation enough to stimulate his magic. His cock pressed against the underside of his immense belly, heavy and leaking little beads of magic. Slim wrapped one of his hands around the base, the other still caressing the belly. 

“C’mon,” Slim murmured, kissing and licking Stretch’s neck as he began to pump his hand, likely feeling the lingering tension in Stretch’s body. “Let me take care of you. Let go. Relax.”

Stretch caught Slim’s gaze in the mirror before allowing his eyes to fall shut, leaning back into his lover further in a blatant show of trust. 

With nothing but gentleness and the straightforward behaviour only a fell verse could inspire in a monster, Slim proceeded to completely take him apart.

_Six_

“Come on,” Slim urged him, his voice intent and serious. “You can do it. Just a bit more!”

Stretch wanted to scream at him that it sure as hell didn’t _feel_ like just a bit, and that he was welcome to try this bullshit for himself if that was all he had to say, but he knew that was unfair and more importantly, he was hit by another contraction and all that left his mouth was a wail of pain. He squeezed Slim’s hand hard, not out of spite but simply because he really needed something to hold and squeeze, to give him the strength to hold on. Slim took it without even the slightest grunt of pain.

This entire thing was so much messier than Stretch had anticipated. It always looked a lot less dramatic on TV - a fine, elegant sheen of sweat, a bit of loud shouting, and then it was over. Whereas for him, he had been contracting for twenty hours before the birth truly began, when his water broke it was as if a horse had pissed on his lap and couch, and over the course of the birth so far, he had vomited twice and honestly, he was really glad he couldn’t quite see what exactly was going on with the actual birth thanks to the angle being weird. He was reasonably sure that would traumatise him forever. 

He had been given a heating pad and a variety of healing food items to deal with the pain, but he couldn’t keep any of the food down and the heating pad honestly wasn’t doing much for him. His bones were unfortunately too sturdy to inject him with anything, so he had to suffer through the whole ordeal. 

Initially, he had been ashamed and covered himself as much as he could, but as the pain, discomfort, and sweat levels increased his ability to give a fuck had dropped into the negative numbers and he had been glad to chuck his clothes into a corner. Who the fuck cared. Slim had seen him naked before and the hospital staff had surely seen worse than his lanky frame. Even if not. Whatever. 

“Hnnnnghh!!” The next wave overcame him, startling him out of his thoughts.

“I can see it!” the midwife told them excitedly. “Keep pushing! And deep breaths!”

Tears slipped out of Stretch’s sockets as he squeezed them shut, pushing with all his might. It was agonizing, he felt like his whole body was locking up and blazing with pain, he felt as if he was being torn apart, as if at any moment, the pain would overtake his soul and body and he’d crumble to dust. Surely his body wasn’t meant to hold this much agony. Surely his pelvic inlet wasn’t meant to be stretched that much. Surely it would be so much better if he just gave up...

But he couldn’t! He had to be strong. The thought of the fragile baby being hurt because he wasn’t strong enough spurred him on, gave him strength even though he kept crying and grunting in pain. 

Until finally, he heard a soft cry. 

For a second, nothing made sense - his field of vision was blurry and he felt so weak and sweaty that he had trouble properly comprehending what was happening around him. Was it over? Had he done it? He could breathe and that felt weird after so many hours of short pants and flat gasps. He felt dizzy. 

“You did it!” Slim whispered next to him, sounding so excited that he seemed to choke on his own words. 

“Congratulations! It’s a healthy little baby monster, a skeleton just like the parents!” the nurse announced and then. 

And then. 

A wet, squirming bundle was gently placed on top of Stretch’s ribcage. 

He blinked down at them and saw them, his own child, for the first time. 

They looked like him and Slim of course, but they also had gotten small touches from the rest of the family, a slight rounding to the eye sockets that reminded him of Blue, and a nasal bone that was unmistakably Razz. They resembled their uncles a little bit. But for the most, of course, he saw himself and Slim. The curvature of the skull, the shape of the zygomatic arches, the form of the teeth and the long, slender, ever so delicate bones. 

Stars, they were so small and fragile. Their bones seemed like those of a bird, impossibly delicate. They were still warm and slimy with his magic, crying but slowly calming down in his presence. They kept huffing, every breath still new to them. 

When their sockets opened, their eye lights were a shade of rusty amber exactly between his honey-golden magic and Slim’s warm copper. 

Stretch stared at them and felt all of his pain melt away in the space of this single moment, as he and his baby looked at each other for the first time. Monster souls were made of love and yet, Stretch had never, ever suspected he was capable of holding such an overwhelming amount of it at once. Nothing compared. Not Slim, not Blue, not anyone else in the whole wide world. 

“Holy shit,” he whispered. His voice was rough and he could feel more tears slip over his face. He didn’t care. Everything was golden and perfect, a moment of such pure joy that nothing would ever be able to taint it. “Holy shit, I did it.”

He heard Slim laugh next to him, a sound that came with a suspiciously wet blubber telling him that he wasn’t the only one crying. He felt filled with love for Slim, for the father of his kid, and then he felt his love spread and encompass everything and everyone he could think of. As aggravated as he had felt over the past few months, as good he felt now. The fears he had about not measuring up crumbled under the force of his love and joy. It suddenly seemed silly to him that he had worried about it in the first place. He loved this tiny being so much. Of course he would work hard for them. Of course he would do his best for them. There was nothing he wouldn’t do. 

Slim leaned over and touched his forehead to Stretch’s, a soft gesture that he appreciated. His little family was here together, enjoying the moment. “I’m so proud of you. Look at them. They’re perfect.” 

“Yeah,” Stretch agreed with a wide smile, because it was true and it made him feel at ease. They were.


End file.
